Jerry Patterson is the Texas Land Commissioner. In this article, he’s responding to criticism that he regularly carries in Big Bend National Park.

I’ve been criticized for acknowledging I carried a concealed handgun, as is my right, on recent visits to Big Bend National Park. A National Park Service rule prohibits carrying a loaded, concealed handgun.

“Evidently, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson was absent from school the day the Constitution was covered,” wrote the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board.

While that’s an awfully cute jab, the reality is I’ve learned the Constitution over the course of a lifetime – not just one day. I’ve taken oaths to uphold and protect our Constitution – as a U.S. Marine and as a state elected official.

A politician who takes his oath to uphold the constitution seriously, AND flagrantly disregards a unconstitutional laws? It’s almost enough to make me move to Texas just so I can vote for him. He ends with this:

As an elected official, I take an oath that I will “to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God.”

I do not regard such affirmations as anachronistic formalities. I guess you can call me an old-fashioned believer in the wisdom of those who penned the Bill of Rights and not much of a believer in the wisdom of editorial boards.